In today’s digital age, marketing plays a vital role in the success of any business. However, developing an effective marketing strategy can be a challenging task for many small business owners and entrepreneurs. In this article, we will explore the concept of value-driven marketing and how it can help establish thought leadership, grow online communities, and build connections.
Value-driven marketing starts with understanding your values. It is essential to identify your values and incorporate them into your marketing strategy. To do this, you can think about your overall content pillars, which align with your values. These pillars can be about three to five topic categories that you will incorporate into your overall marketing plan, such as personal content, tips, or videos. By using these methods and content umbrella, you can plan out your content marketing strategy and ensure that you always focus on providing value to your audience.
Providing value to your audience is critical, regardless of the method you use to deliver it. Your marketing content should always focus on providing value and serving your audience in some way. This can include educating them on a topic related to your business, building the know-like-trust factor, or simply providing them with something they can benefit from.
A common concern with providing too much value is the fear that it may harm the business side of things. However, our expert recommends that you can give people all the information in the world, but whether they implement it is a whole other thing. By providing valuable information, you can establish yourself as an expert, and your audience will appreciate the fact that you gave them all of this free information. Moreover, when they realize that they can’t do it themselves, you will be the first person they think of to outsource it to.
Value-driven marketing is a powerful tool for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
By understanding your values, incorporating them into your marketing strategy, and providing value to your audience, you can establish yourself as an expert, grow your online community, and build lasting connections with your audience.
Creating a Marketing Ecosystem: How to Sustain Your Content Strategy
When it comes to creating a successful marketing ecosystem, it’s essential to consider all the moving parts that make up your content strategy. This includes using multiple marketing methods like social media, email marketing, blogging, video creation, and having a website.
Many business owners and bloggers struggle to keep up with their content strategy because they get busy with other aspects of their business. However, there are ways to simplify the process and ensure that your content is consistently published and shared with your audience.
One effective approach is batch planning your content. By setting aside a few hours each month, you can plan out your social media posts, write blog articles, and schedule your newsletters in advance. This way, you can set it and forget it, knowing that your content is taken care of for the month.
If life gets in the way, and you’re unable to stick to your batch planning schedule, it’s essential to have a backup plan. You might consider reducing the amount of content you plan to publish or outsourcing some of the work to a freelancer.
The important thing is to keep your content strategy moving forward, even if it’s at a slower pace than you originally intended.
Creating a successful marketing ecosystem takes time and effort, but with the right approach and tools, you can sustain your content strategy and keep your audience engaged with your brand.
Let’s say you have a blog post on “5 Tips for Improving Your Productivity”. Here’s how you can create a value-driven marketing ecosystem around it:
- Social Media Posts: Write 3-4 social media posts that share the key takeaways from the blog post. Use eye-catching visuals and tag relevant influencers or brands in the post. Use the Evergreen option in your scheduling tool to ensure the posts are shared regularly.
- Email Marketing: Create an email marketing campaign that promotes the blog post. Segment your email list based on their interests and send targeted emails that speak to their pain points. Include a call-to-action to encourage readers to share the post or subscribe to your newsletter.
- Video Content: Create a short video that shares the key tips from the blog post. Share it on social media, embed it in the blog post, and include it in your email marketing campaign.
- Podcast Episode: Create a podcast episode that dives deeper into the topic of productivity. Use the blog post as a starting point and invite guests to share their own productivity tips. Share the episode on social media and include a call-to-action to encourage listeners to read the blog post.
- Lead Magnet: Create a lead magnet, such as a free checklist or ebook, that complements the blog post. Offer it as an incentive for readers to subscribe to your newsletter or share the blog post on social media.
Repurposing Your Content
Repurposing your blog post can be a game-changer for reaching more people and increasing engagement, but it’s essential to avoid some common mistakes.
One of the most significant blunders is focusing too much on one platform or medium and forgetting about others that your audience might find valuable.
To avoid this, it’s crucial to research and understand your audience’s preferences to determine which channels will be most effective for reaching them.
Another common mistake is simply reposting content without adding a fresh perspective or a new spin. While reusing your content is okay, you want to present it in a new and exciting way to prevent it from feeling boring or repetitive.
By doing this, you can help your audience see your content in a different light and maintain their interest over time.
Overall, the key to successful repurposing is to be intentional and strategic in your approach. Take the time to research your audience and explore new ways to present your content to them, and you can create an ecosystem of content that educates and entertains your audience across multiple channels.
You know, it’s important to keep in mind that even if someone has seen your content, they may not have read all of it.
People’s attention spans can be pretty short these days, especially with so much information competing for their attention. Plus, let’s be real, some of those summit sessions can feel like they go on forever, am I right?
Anyway, when it comes to providing value in your content, it really depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
The ultimate goal is to inspire and encourage your readers to take action, whether that’s trying out a new tip, reading a blog post, downloading a resource, or anything else that will help them improve their life, blog, or business.
What About That CTA?
That’s where your call to action (or CTA for short) comes in. Your CTA is the clear step that you want your reader to take after consuming your content. And deciding what that step should be depends on what you want to achieve.
If you’re hoping to grow your email list, your CTA might be to download a free resource in exchange for signing up. If you want more website traffic, your CTA could be to check out a related blog post or explore another page on your site.
But here’s the thing: getting people to take action isn’t always easy. That’s why it’s important to keep asking. Just like being a parent, sometimes you need to keep reminding and asking before someone does what you want them to do.
So don’t be afraid to include your CTA multiple times throughout your content. It might feel repetitive, but it’s necessary to increase the chances of someone taking action.
When it comes to juggling multiple goals and CTAs, it can be a balancing act. You want to keep things fresh and engaging for your readers, while still achieving your desired outcomes. One approach could be to rotate your CTAs and alternate them based on the type of content you’re sharing. Or you could include multiple CTAs within a single piece of content, but make sure they’re all related and complement each other.
But, how do you balance when you have multiple goals?
How often should you be switching between different calls to action to keep it fresh and engaging?
So many different goals to reach, how exactly do you manage them all?
It really depends on the season of your business or blog.
If you’re in the season of launching something, your goal might be to build your email list so that you have more subscribers on your list when it’s time to announce the launch of whatever it is to your audience.
On the other hand, if things are a little slower in the season, maybe you just want to focus on building up some followers. You can create content that helps you reach that goal.
But ultimately, it depends on what you’re looking to do at that time, and it can change over time. As you start to reach new goals, you might set bigger ones or realize that you need to change your approach.
So, how do you see what’s working? How do you check the data and easily see what’s helping you reach your goals?
Well, Google Analytics is huge.
Make sure that you set it up and see what your bounce rate is, how many clicks people had, and how many subscribes came from that one landing page.
It’s especially helpful if you’re promoting a lead magnet on social media, and you can see that social media is driving people to your website, but they’re not opting in. That’s an indication that something needs to be fixed on that landing page to convert those interested visitors into subscribers.
Google Analytics can be a bit of a beast to figure out, but they offer certification and courses that could help. However, I find that trying it out for yourself is the best way to learn. You could also hire a consultant to set it up for you and do a one-on-one session to walk you through the process. That could help take some of the stress off your hands, especially if you just want to see the data without caring about how it’s working.
Tips for Creating a Cohesive Marketing Plan:
- Start small: Many business owners and bloggers feel overwhelmed trying to do everything at once. Focus on one or two platforms and gradually build from there.
- Know your target market: Understanding who your audience is and what platforms they’re using can help you prioritize where to focus your marketing efforts.
- Consistency over frequency: Consistency is more important than posting frequency. Start with a manageable amount of content (e.g. one social media post per week, one newsletter per quarter, one blog post per month) and gradually increase as you feel comfortable.
- Avoid burnout: Doing everything all at once can cause burnout and make you give up on your marketing plan. Starting small and gradually building up can help you avoid this.
Creating a cohesive marketing plan is essential for the success of any business or blog. By focusing on your target market and the platforms they use, starting small with your content and gradually increasing your frequency, and using tools like Google Analytics to track your progress, you can build a strong marketing ecosystem that drives engagement and growth.
And remember, consistency is key!
By showing up regularly and providing value to your audience, you’ll establish a strong connection with them and foster long-term relationships that benefit both you and your customers.
So don’t be afraid to take the first step, start small, and keep moving forward.
Your marketing ecosystem will thank you for it!
